One of the big official 5oth anniversary of the Summer of Love events taking place in San Francisco is an exhibit of the same name at the DeYoung Museum. It’s been on the Adventurers’ calendar for some time, and up they went today, a foggy, windy, cold San Francisco day. (Just as note: 20 degree temperature difference between the City and Menlo Park.)

They’d head the exhibit had tons of posters from 60s rock concerts at places like the Fillmore, Avalon, and Longshoremen’s auditorium. One room was lined with poster wallpaper with other posters on exhibit.

There were some good mostly black and white photos of the hippie invasion to the Haight and clothes that in L’s mind looked a lot more like costumes that what people really wore in the last 60s. Small quibble, they were fun to look at.

What was absent, they agreed, was the music. There was a lot of references to the bands of the era – Big Brother, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger etc. – but little sound. L would have had music blasting for the rafters of every exhibit room. (But these that would have cut down on the sales of audio tours…)

After taking in the exhibit, they did what only seemed right, headed over to the Haight for lunch, eating at a good Puerto Rican spot, Parada 22 (photo above). The Haight is still pretty touristy but there are some real clothing stories intermingled in with the hippie fare. And at least on a Tuesday early afternoon, the hard drug use seemed to be at a minimum. (Someone was smoking pot at the deYoung restroom, which was amusing.)

It was a chilly but nice day…

Walk/Golden Gate park to museum and back to car/easy/two mile Walk/up and down Haight st./easy/two miles